Month: March 2011

Growing up many of us have the dream to one day be famous. There are countless ways to go about doing so. Recentally a young girl has become super famous for a very odd reason. Rebecca Black is currently experiencing her 15 minutes of fame. Her song Friday has been called “The worst song ever” yet she has still made over a million dollars on the single. Just one month ago no one knew who this young girl was but today she is an internet sensation, but all for the wrong reasons. I agree, the song is horrible, but some how she has made a pretty penny off it.  I recentally saw an interview with Rebecca where she stated that she doesn’t think shes the best singer, but also isnt the worst. I think the real issue is her lyrics. They are overly simple and she has been ridiculed for that.  Rebeccas Black’s non-fans have been quoted saying “We don’t hate you because your famous, You’re famous because we hate you.” I feel this is a little harsh.

Famous because we “Hate her” or because she has created a really catchy song, Either way, at the end of the day Rebecca has a lot more fame and money than most teenagers. She has taken her bad reputation and brushed it off and is now a huge internet sensation.

Check out her video for yourself here:

Rebecca Black – Friday

Ask any Sauder Student what its like in the Sauder building on weekday around noon and most of us will give you the same answer, Chaos. There are so many events and clubs who are advertising themselves and trying to get the attention of the hundreds of students walking by. Yes, This is not an easy task. With so many booths for different things its hard to differentiate yourself from the table next to you. Some groups hand out candy, or home made cupcakes, I have even seen one table giving away Tim Horton’s coffee and TimBits! And this all works, Students are lured in by the food and then the representatives have the chance to swoop in and make the sale.

The other day I saw one table that really caught my attention. There was no big crowd around them, no cupcakes and no coffee, Just a lone student holding a small white-board which read “Why is this guy holding this sign?”. This made me wonder, why was this guy holding the sign? seeing as I had a few minutes before class I thought I’d go find out. Turns out he was trying to get people to sign up for Update,  a conference hosted by the UBC e-business club with the goal to update students on the  current state on the web.

The only reason I know this, is because out of all the booths set up in the hall way, This is the only one that successfully got me to take their brochure. Since then I have seen him many times with some clever slogan written on his board. I think this is a great way to differentiate their event booth from all the others and instead of just drawing people in for a free candy or cookie he draws students in for reasons that actually benefit the group, because they actually want to know what hes offering.. Clearly someone has been paying attention in Marketing class.

I recentally was reading Beverley Cheng’s blog “Collaborations, Collaborations, Collaborations” which focuses on collaborations between different designers in the fashion industry. I really liked her ideas about how collaborating can be a great way to market your product. This got me thinking about other industries who use this method to market their products. There has been the Nike and Apple Collaboration resulting in the Nike+iPod Sport Kit. And as well all know musicians often collaborate with other musicians when recoding music. But have you ever thought about a musical band collaborating with an Insurance provider.

Well, I was surfing the net looking for some cool collaborations and thats exactly what I found. Helen Walters posted on her Bloomberg Business Week Blog about this. Inside the OK Go / State Farm Deal blog post talks about how the (semi) popular band OK Go’s music video for their song, This Too Shall Pass is ended with a message stating that “OK Go thanks State Farm for making this video possible”. So why would these two completley different “companies” choose to collaborate? Well, Everytime someone watches the OK Go video on TV or on the internet, State Farm gets a shout out, their brand name is being advertised in places they might not normally be able to be seen. And as for OK Go, Well they got their music video paid for, and for a small Indy band, thats pretty sweet.

I think its pretty clear that these collaborations are everywhere we just need to keep our eyes open for them and we will see they are all around us, even in places you might not expect to see one.

By now, its pretty clear that its possible to market just about anything. Las Vegas has taken their negative reputation and put a new spin on it that draws people in. Vegas, AKA Sin City is knowns for excessive and high roller gambling, drinking all day,  wild parties that last all night often leading to quickie weddings preformed by an Elvis look alike.

But the City of Las Vegas has taken this reputation and marketed it. They have coined the phrase “What happens in Vegas, Stays in Vegas” and marketed their extreme party lifestyle to young people who are looking for a wild party. Every year Vegas attracts thousands of Bachelor and Bachelorette  parties and young people celebrating their 21st birthdays from all over North America. This is a great example of hows companies (or cities..) can take something that may be a negative aspect, and market it to bring in new customers.

Their reputation itself now promotes itself, there are countless movies, TV shoes and songs that mention this reputation and inadvertently promote Vegas as a great party destination.

In addition, Vegas continues to market their other attributes like the nice warm weather, great shopping and unique tourist attractions.